Just finished "The Bomber Mafia" by Malcomb Gladwell. Gladwell is an author & podcaster who specializes in the unintended consequenses and backstory behind the story.
In the 1930s at the USAAC's Air Tactics School at Maxwell Air Base in Alabama, a group of instructors, called the Bomber Mafia, came up with the idea that air power and precision bombing could prevent a stalemate war such as the First World War. Their tactics would also minimize civilian casualties by attacking only military targets They got the Norden Bombsight that allowed the bombardier to put a bomb 'down a pickle barrel from 30000 feet'. Fast heavy bombers were on order and would be operational soon. An electrical failrue in the northeast power grid caused delivery backups at the Hamilton Propeller plant affecting aircraft production. This in part shaped their tactical thinking.
Among the staff at the school was Haywood Hansell, soon to be the head of the 8th Air Force at the start of the war. Hansell persisted when the Army Air Corps was sought to join the RAF in night saturation bombing. 'We can put a bomb down a pickle barrel from 30000 feet.' -- But you have to be able to see the pickle barrel. Weather conditions were not ideal in Central Europe. Searching for a target and remembering the Hamilton Propeller incident - they found that most of the German ball bearing production was in and around Schweinfurt. General Hansell's attack plan called for a diversionary raid on Regensburg. Tie up the German fighters and have them on the ground refueling an rearming when the main attack came through.
Named to lead the diversion was Curtis Lemay. Lemay was not part of the Bomber mafia. Lemay, knowing that the attack would launch early in the morning, had is aircraft practice early morning takeoffs and rendezvous in typical English morning weather. When the day of the attack arrived, Lemay's forces took off on schedule and attacked Regensburg, drawing the fighters as expected. However the follow-on forces were held on the ground due to morning fog. Surprise was lost, diversion was lost, advantage was lost. Hansell was soon removed and rotated to other command in the Pacific. General area bombing became necessary to put the number of bombs on target necessary - violating the goals of the Bomber Mafia.
In the Pacific, Hansell was in command of B-29s at Guam. In attacking the Japanese mainland, they could seek the targets but could not hit them due to the jet stream phenomenon. Unknown before then the bombsight could not account for the high wind speed. Head winds in flight also caused many bombers to be lost due to fuel depletion on the return flight.
Hansell was replaced by, you guessed it, Lemay. Lemay brought the bombers down from 30000 feet to 5000 feet and began night time saturation bombing including incendiaries.
The lofty goals of the Bomber Mafia, including minimizing civilian damage and casualties was overcome by wartime necessities and General Curtis Lemay